William Gibson's "Neuromancer," the first book in The Sprawl Trilogy, was loved by all for its original voice, and it really managed to reinvigorate science fiction in the era. The first novel to win the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick awards, the second book had a lot to live up to, and in my humble opinion, it surpasses it.

Between the first two books of the trilogy, Gibson has managed to create not only an interesting future world, but an entire culture. Everything including language, religion, technology, economy, demographics and more are brought to life through the novels. The greatest strength of Gibson's storytelling is he never TELLS you, he SHOWS you. His prose is outstanding, without a misplaced word. Its astounding from the beginning, and when you get to the end and realize that everything has been foreshadowed from the first few chapters, it becomes all the more impressive.

"Count Zero" tells three story lines at once, alternating between chapters. The first and primary story is that of Turner, an unaffiliated mercenary-for-hire who has recently gone through a really bad job that ended up with having to have his face reconstructed following an explosion in New Delhi. Despite the previous disaster, Turner is given the job of extracting a wealthy and influential scientist who means to defect from one mega-corporation to another, but things get rocky when Turner begins to suspect that someone on his team is a double agent.

Bobby Newmark, alias Count Zero, is a computer hacker who knows he is being chased. His deck, which is the equipment used to jack into cyberspace, is stolen, and in the process of trying to track it down and the people who took it for him, he gets thrust into what seems like a war in cyberspace, between his associate's and a computer virus that appears to have taken a life of its own.

Marly Krushkova is a small-time art dealer whose reputation has been ruined by accidentally trying to sell a hoax painting. She is recruited by brilliant, but reclusive, industrialist Josef Virek, who gives her the task of tracking down the creator of mysterious boxes that may hold the key to Virek's future.

I cannot stress enough how awesome this book was. It was a lot smoother of a read than "Neuromancer," but in my mind no less outstanding, and I think possibly better. The characters are great and interesting, especially the mercenary Turner, who turns out to be easily among my favorite characters in sci-fi. Highly recommended to anyone who loves science fiction, but you should probably read "Neuromancer" first.